Spurs 1-0 Aston Villa (WLC) | Robert’s verdict: “I liked how they worked together” | OneFootball

Robert Vilahamn highlighted his side’s defensive performance as we returned to winning ways with a 1-0 win over Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon.

After an hour of very little opportunities at Brisbane Road, a moment of magic was needed to break the deadlock in the Women’s League Cup encounter and Eveliina Summanen provided that with sheer brilliance to net her third goal of the season.

Receiving the ball from around 40 yards out, the Finland international steadied herself before unleashing one of the best strikes so far this season, crashing into the top right corner via the underside of the crossbar.

That result saw us pick up our first win in three games in all competitions, while making it two victories in two in the Women’s League Cup as we moved one step closer to securing progression to the knockout stage of the competition.

There was also a debutant amongst our starting XI as Eleanor Heeps was given the opportunity in between the sticks and the young goalkeeper put in a strong performance to preserve a clean sheet in her first appearance in our colours.

Reflecting on the win over Villa, Robert told SPURSPLAY: “We have come into this after a tough few losses, the win is one thing but, I think, how we defended to show that we can do that, today we did it together.

“Eleanor coming in and having a clean sheet for the first time she plays and, I think, how we defended as a team, made sure we press higher, we were aggressive, that’s who we are and we showed that. Even in the build-up, we were very brave, using Eleanor as well, for me, result-wise is really good but the performance was actually good as well.”

Asked about his thoughts on Eveliina’s stunning strike, he added: “It’s probably one of the nicest goals I have seen, like the power of the shot, the distance, the quality, it’s really nice. It’s also good for us because we had a few really good chances where we should have scored, so it was nice to score in that way instead.”

Alongside naming Eleanor in the starting XI, Robert made a further four changes to the side that faced Arsenal, including handing summer arrival Anna Csiki her second start for the Club, and he was pleased with her display alongside the others brought in.

“Anna is a player I have worked with before, I have used her in that position before, she had a bad injury but has come back so, when we signed her, we knew we would work with her for a while before she can be competing.

“She got a chance to complete 90 minutes and, I think, she was really good on the ball, she’s a really good player to play the way we want. She still needs to improve some stuff in her fitness but, right now, she’s taking steps.

“Ella also played really well, Amy back in and playing, there’s many names I could drop here but the team effort was nice, I liked how they defended and worked together.”

Watch - Vilahamn reflects on win over Villa